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REPORT OF THE BOARD OF ENGINEERS FOR RIVERS AND HARBORS
ON REVIEW OF REPORTS HERETOFORE SUBMITTED ON GREEN-
PORT HARBOR (STERLING BASIN), N. Y., WITH ILLUSTRATION

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Hon. J. J. MANSFIELD,

Chairman, Committee on Rivers and Harbors,

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.

MY DEAR MR. MANSFIELD: 1. The Committee on Rivers and Harbors of the House of Representatives, by a resolution adopted February 28, 1935, requested the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors to review the reports on Sterling Basin, Greenport Harbor, N. Y., submitted in House Documents Nos. 874, Sixty-first Congress, second session, and 1114, Sixty-fifth Congress, second session, with a view to determining if the improvement of this harbor is advisable at this time. I inclose herewith the report of the Board in response thereto.

2. Greenport Harbor is an open cove on the northerly side of Shelter Island Sound, at the eastern end of Long Island. It is 28 miles by water southwest of New London, Conn. Sterling Basin is a small, shallow, and nearly landlocked cove opening into Greenport outer harbor from the northward. Under the present project for improvement the United States has constructed a breakwater, three-tenths of a mile in length, on the easterly side of the outer harbor and has dredged an anchorage basin of 5 acres adjacent to the breakwater to a depth of 9 feet. A channel 60 feet wide and 5 feet deep was dredged from the outer harbor into Sterling Basin, but the improvement of the basin is not included in the project. The prevailing depth of water in the basin is 2 feet at low water. The mean range of tide is 2.4 feet. The existing project was completed in 1893 at a total cost of $44,715.98, and has required no maintenance. Local interests now request improvement of Sterling Basin to a depth of 10 feet

within the established harbor lines, which define an area 1,200 feet long and 600 feet wide with an entrance 200 feet wide, to provide a protected anchorage and base for pleasure craft. They offer to construct a bulkhead to be used as a public landing and to provide suitable spoil-disposal areas.

3. The adjoining town of Greenport has a population of 4,000. Its industries include a number of well-equipped boatyards, one of which is capable of handling vessels up to 21 feet in draft, and the village is an important center for the oyster industry. Greenport and the surrounding agricultural area are well served by railways and improved highways. The locality is an important summer resort, and it is reported that the harbor is the home port for some 200 pleasure craft and a port of call for an additional 250 visiting craft. The commerce of the harbor, all of which is handled in Greenport outer harbor, decreased from 101,661 tons in 1930 to 34,732 tons in 1933, increasing to 35,520 tons in 1934. It consists chiefly of receipts of lumber, petroleum products, and seafoods, and shipments of fish and shells.

4. The Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors finds a moderate improvement of Sterling Basin at Greenport Harbor advisable to provide a protected harbor for the large number of local and transient pleasure craft frequenting the waters of eastern Long Island. An anchorage 1,000 feet long, 360 feet wide, and 8 feet deep, with an entrance channel 100 feet wide, which can be provided at an estimated cost of $53,000, is deemed adequate for the present and immediately prospective requirements of navigation. The general benefits of this improvement are sufficient to warrant execution of the work at Federal expense. The Board recommends modification of the existing project for Greenport Harbor, N. Y., to provide an anchorage in Sterling Basin 1,000 feet long, 360 feet wide, and 8 feet deep, with an entrance channel of the same depth, 100 feet wide, all as indicated on the accompanying map, at an estimated cost of $53,000 for new work, with maintenance estimated at $750 annually, provided local interests shall furnish, without cost to the United States, adequate and suitable spoil-disposal areas, and give assurances satisfactory to the Chief of Engineers that a suitable public landing on the basin shore and moorings in the dredged area for visiting craft will be provided and maintained open to the public on equal and reasonable

terms.

5. After due consideration of these reports, I concur in the views and recommendations of the Board.

Very truly yours,

E. M. MARKHAM,
Major General,
Chief of Engineers.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF ENGINEERS FOR RIVERS AND HARBORS
WAR DEPARTMENT,

BOARD OF ENGINEERS FOR RIVERS AND HARBORS,
Washington, January 22, 1936.

Subject: Sterling Basin, Greenport Harbor, N. Y.
To: The Chief of Engineers, United States Army.

1. This report is in response to the following resolution, adopted February 28, 1935:

Resolved, by the Committee on Rivers and Harbors of the House of Representatives, United States, That the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors created under section 3 of the River and Harbor Act, approved June 13, 1902, be, and is hereby, requested to review the reports on Sterling Basin, Greenport Harbor, N. Y., submitted in House Documents Numbered 874, Sixty-first Congress, second session, and 1114, Sixty-fifth Congress, second session, with a view to determining if the improvement of this harbor is advisable at this time.

2. Sterling Basin is a small landlocked cove which forms a part of Greenport Harbor, N. Y. Greenport is a well-sheltered harbor near the eastern end of Long Island, 28 miles southwest of New London, Conn. The outer harbor has been improved by the Federal Government by the construction of a breakwater 1,570 feet long and by dredging to a depth of 9 feet an anchorage basin 5 acres in area adjacent thereto, with a channel 60 feet wide and 5 feet deep from the outer harbor to Sterling Basin. The improvement was completed in 1893, at a total cost of $44,715.98. No expenditures have been made for maintenance. The improvement of the basin is not included in the project now authorized. Harbor lines have been established by the Secretary of War in the basin, reserving for navigation an area 1,200 feet long and 600 feet wide, with an entrance 200 feet wide. The basin is separated from the outer harbor by a spit known as Sandy Point, which restricts the present entrance to a width of 100 feet. The prevailing depth in the basin is 2 feet at mean low water. The mean tidal range is 2.4 feet. Two abandoned vessel hulks encumber the basin. In the report under review, made in 1910, improvement was recommended to dredge the basin to a depth of 6 feet over an area 360 feet wide and 1,000 feet long in front of the wharves at Greenport, at an estimated cost of $22,500.

3. The adjoining village of Greenport, population 4,000, has several modern boat yards equipped with marine railways and machine shops. The village is an important center for the oyster industry which employs about 500 persons. Ten organizations located in Greenport market oyster products in all parts of the United States. The adjacent hinterland is an important agricultural area. The locality is much favored for summer recreational activities. At the present time there is very little commercial traffic in Sterling Basin. Greenport has a considerable amount of vessel traffic both commercial and pleasure craft. The principal commodities handled are fish, shells, lumber, and petroleum products. Tonnages have varied from a maximum of 102,000 tons in 1930 to a minimum of 35,000 tons in 1933, increasing to 36,000 tons in 1934. It is claimed that 75 com

mercial fishing and oyster boats and 200 pleasure craft use Greenport Harbor for a home port and that an additional 250 transient pleasure craft make it a port of call each season. The area is served by the main line of the Long Island Railroad and numerous first-class highways.

4. Local interests request the improvement of the entire area of Sterling Basin within established Federal harbor lines to a depth of 10 feet, with suitable entrance. They state that the available anchorage in Greenport Harbor partly protected by the breakwater is not safe for small pleasure boats during storms from the northeast, east, and south, and that shoaling in Sterling Basin has greatly restricted the use of the basin as a harbor for small boats. They claim that a larger anchorage area is needed for the increasing number of pleasure craft visiting the vicinity in the summer, and that if the basin were improved many such craft would make it their home port. They further claim that owing to crowding at other nearby harbors Sterling Basin offers the only area for expansion. No offer of local cooperation was made other than the construction of a bulkhead to be used as a public landing and the providing of suitable spoil-disposal areas. Proponents of the improvement estimate the monetary value of the desired improvement at $400,000 and estimate that water-borne commerce would increase by 21,000 tons annually.

5. The district engineer believes that the desired improvement would not result in any substantial increase in water-borne commerce at Greenport Harbor, but that there might be a shifting of some of the present tonnage to an improved inner harbor. In his opinion the improvement would result in small benefit to general commerce and its principal benefit would accrue to pleasure boats, the needs of which constitute the primary basis for the present request. He believes that an improved anchorage area in a better protected location is necessary for local and transient pleasure craft and that such would tend to attract an increasing number of transients with substantial expansion of local business by resultant purchases of supplies and services.

6. The district engineer has investigated three plans of improvement to meet the desires of local interests. The first provides for an entrance channel 1,000 feet long, 100 feet wide, and 10 feet deep, from deep water in Greenport Harbor to Sterling Basin, following the west pierhead and bulkhead line, and for an anchorage area 1,200 feet long and 600 feet wide in the basin of the same depth, at an estimated cost of $115,800 with $1,250 annually for maintenance. The second plan provides for an entrance channel 100 feet wide and 6 feet deep, and for an anchorage area 1,200 feet long and 600 feet wide in the basin of the same depth, at an estimated cost of $71,500, with $1,250 annually for maintenance. The third plan provides for an entrance channel 100 feet wide and 6 feet deep, and for an anchorage area 1,000 feet long and 360 feet wide in the basin of the same depth, at an estimated cost of $34,500, with $750 annually for maintenance. The district engineer is of the opinion that further improvement of Greenport Harbor to provide an anchorage area in Sterling Basin for pleasure craft is desirable and warrants some participation by the Federal Government. He favors the third plan of improvement, which is the same as has previously been recommended and which he believes will provide sufficiently for present and reasonably prospec

tive needs of navigation, and recommends its adoption subject to the provision that local interests shall contribute one-half the first cost of dredging and furnish, without cost to the United States, adequate and suitable spoil disposal areas, and that the village of Greenport or other local authorities shall furnish assurances satisfactory to the Chief of Engineers that they will provide and maintain a public landing along Sterling Basin, under plans to be approved by the district engineer, suitable for pleasure craft which may use the proposed anchorage area, and will install and maintain in such area necessary moorings for visiting pleasure craft, both landing and mooring to be open to the public on reasonable and equal terms. The division engineer concurs in general with the district engineer.

7. Local interests were advised of the nature of the division engineer's report and invited to present additional information to the board. At their request a hearing was held, at which they claimed that the smaller anchorage area proposed by the district and division engineers would be inadequate for the large numbers of transient yachts and commercial craft seeking shelter in Sterling Basin; and that a minimum depth of 8 feet would be necessary to accommodate a large proportion of such vessels, particularly at t mes of extremely low tides. Local interests stated they were unable financially to contribute toward the cost of the improvement, but emphasized the fact that Sterling Basin is strategically located as an overnight stopping place and cruise objective for many thousands of pleasure craft in the New England area.

VIEWS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE BOARD OF ENGINEERS FOR RIVERS AND HARBORS

8. The Board concurs in the views of the reporting officers that some improvement of Sterling Basin is warranted. The waters of eastern Long Island, including Greenport Harbor, are frequented by large numbers of pleasure craft both local and transient. A protected harbor for small craft is needed, and can be made available at Greenport without undue cost. To accommodate the medium and largersized craft, particularly during rough weather, the proposed basin and entrance channel should be dredged to a depth of 8 feet. The area proposed by the reporting officers appears to be adequate for the present and reasonably prospective requirements of pleasure-boat navigation, particularly if proper measures are undertaken to regulate anchorage of vessels and necessary facilities, such as mooring piles, are provided. While the local benefits from the improvement will be considerable, the general benefits from this improvement, as from the improvement of many similar small harbors, are sufficient to warrant. the execution of the work at Federal expense. The Board perceives no adequate ground for modifying the prior recommendation of the Department, which contemplated the execution of the work without local contribution. The Board therefore recommends that the existing project for Greenport Harbor, N. Y., be modified to provide an anchorage in Sterling Basin 1,000 feet long, 360 feet wide and 8 feet deep, with an entrance channel of the same depth, 100 feet wide, all as indicated on the accompanying map, at an estimated cost of $53,000 for new work, with maintenance estimated at $750 annually, provided local interests shall furnish, without cost to the United States,

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